Lanka to get first energy recovery project

The first energy recovery project worth US$ 100 million to be implemented in Sri Lanka will completed by the end of next year, with the objective of solving the waste disposal problems in Colombo City and the suburbs. Last Thursday, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) issued a Letter of Intent (LOI) to Colombo Renewable Energy (Pvt) Ltd to purchase renewable energy for a period of 20 years.

Once fully implemented, this project will produce 40 MW of clean renewable energy (synthetic gas) while reducing, and potentially eliminating the need for landfills and dumpsites in and around Colombo. The total solid waste generation from the Colombo Municipal Council area only is almost 1500 tons per day while the waste collection is around 650 tons per day.

Today 12 acres of land off Bloemendhal Road has almost a 15-metre high mountain of garbage on it. Solid waste including plastics, miscellaneous electrical items, glass, iron, and hazardous waste will be used for plasma gasification. Plasma gasification is the gasification of matter in an oxygen-starved environment to decompose waste material into its basic molecular structure. It converts the organic waste into a fuel gas that still contains all the chemical and heat energy from the waste. The inorganic waste is converted into an inert vitrified glass.

The conversion process could accommodate any type of waste and sorting of waste is unnecessary. The temperature heating the process is as high as 25,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of these high temperatures the waste is completely destroyed and broken down into its basic elemental components.

At these high temperatures all metals become molten and flow out from the bottom of the reactor. There is no ash remaining to go back to a landfill but a substance called ‘slag’ quite similar to lava, which could be used for construction purposes or to make items like tiles and bricks.

The Sunday Times learns that although the Government has allocated 50 acres from Muthurajawela for the project the company is also conducting feasibility studies at Sapugaskanda and Veyangoda. Colombo Renewable Energy (Pvt) Ltd has signed a 20 year feed supply agreement with Burns Trading (Pvt) Ltd, by which Burns will supply the required quantity of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from its compost factory at Sedawatte and the Bloemendhal garbage dump site.